HANSON – Whatever assessment funding formula is finally agreed upon by the towns, “it is important that all parties look at it thinking, ‘We’re going to be taken care of,’” Whitman Select Board member Shawn Kain said during a meeting with the Hanson Select Board about the school assessment formula, during a Tuesday, Aug. 6 meeting with Hanson officials.
“It can’t all be going to the schools, and it can’t all be going to the town departments,” he said. “However it’s defined it needs to be obvious that it’s fair, and I think that’s a key piece.”
Any assessment formula should also be based on and responsive to current data, he noted.
Kain, who introduced himself by way of describing his efforts to bring in a financial consultant to work with Whitman to assist with financial forecasting of a number of years ago, when he served on the Finance Committee.
“Although the town was in decent shape financially, we could see that there were some big roadblocks coming ahead,” he said, noting both towns have used consultant John Madden for that work. “In many ways, he really did help us start to look in the right direction, start to think more strategically about what we do … but, obviously, with this last budget cycle, it’s pretty clear that there is a vulnerability with the formula we use to assess the schools.”
Madden had arrived at a 5-percent guideline following a number of discussions with a working group of town officials.
Kain noted that, in the ensuing years that 5-percent figure had begun to be viewed as a bit arbitrary by select boards in both towns as well as the School Committee. For all parties a strict adherence to 5 percent, without a better understanding of how it was developed, seems lacking, Kain said.
“Although we’ve made progress with strategic planning, I think developing a new formula of school assessment is appropriate,” he said, offering to share a formula he had arrived at as something to consider.
Kain is also working to be on a School Committee agenda to discuss his idea in August or September.
“We appreciate you coming and we do appreciate the ongoing effort for a partnership,” said Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “We certainly have been trying to be good partners – I feel we have been good partners – and we’ve got some concerns about the way things went down.”
She said she was aware the Whitman Select Board had a different result from their Town Meeting, but reminded Kain that Hanson ended up having to reduce people’s hours.
“That’s on top of the statutory method that we’re still reeling from, so the feeling of partnership is starting to wane,” she said. “I am like the eternal optimist, and even I’m starting to go like, ‘OK, maybe read the room, here.’”
She suggested that, if they focused on numbers and the facts, and not on personalities, she said she is hoping for more clarity on all sides.
Kain agreed with that position.
The objectives he shared with his own board must be transparent, he said, and the school assessment was something they felt was clearly defined and easy to understand.
“[The public should be able to] see what we are doing, from the beginning, so it’s not like things are being done behind closed doors, it’s easy to understand and it’s kind of explicit – it’s out there for everyone to see,” Kain said.
He added that the process needs to be fair for all parties.
Regarding the 5 percent, Kain said that, in leaner years, that much is viewed as being overly generous to the schools, and in years where there is more revenue, the schools look at 5 percent like it’s lacking.
The 5-percent standard needs to be seen as fair for everyone,” he said. “If we have a good amount of revenue from a particular point, in their view, 5 percent feels like it seems like an awful.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed that a formula needs to be based on current data, noting the Madden report’s leaning on 5 percent might have been based on information that was “a bit stale,” but it was the data Hanson had, and it made them feel confident they could say that 5 percent is what they could afford.
Select Board member Ed Heal said that, in the beginning, a lot of them didn’t even understand the 5 percent.
“There was a 3.8 number thrown out, and a lot of us, including me, reluctantly agreed to go up to the 5 percent,” he said. “But not all of us agree with even the 5 percent.”
He said that 5 percent is still more than Hanson could afford.
FitzGerald-Kemmett noted that the fact that it wasn’t the entire school budget – just the operational assessment – that increased by 5 percent, which was also an important fact to consider, but she also stressed fairness between departments very much was a consideration.
“And we started that conversation early,” she said. “Really early.”
Town departments were given an honest projection of where town finances were and that they would have to hold the line, but they also realized the schools were facing increased costs and they were trying to be sensitive to that, too.
“What ended up really being a bummer was the fact that we were being so consistent and so clear – I mean, we shouted it from the rooftops – this was all we could afford, we don’t have any money… didn’t matter.”
While she knows Kain was not there to solve the relationship problem, FitzGerald-Kemmett said she saw two parts to the situation.
Numbers are important and a better job needs to be done with communication.
Kain agreed, saying the Whitman board felt a lot of that, as well, but he said it’s possible to develop a formula that can help people understand why the number proposed is the number that towns can afford, especially if they take an override off the table.
The towns are looking at it as a Zero-sum game, in that what they take from one department, they must take from others.
“If we want to be transparent, if we want the school assessment formula that we use to be clearly defined and … easy to understand. It’s very important for the public that they can see what we’re doing, from the beginning, and it’s not being done behind closed doors,” Kain said. “It’s out there for everybody to see. I also think it needs to be fair for all parties involved.”
Hanson Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf said he loved Kain’s proposal [see inset] because it showed promise for making the budget process easier.
“It’s simple to understand,” he said. “I have some skepticism that the schools would go along with this, but if they did, it would be great,” he said.
Kain said he does want feedback from the schools and hopes to put together a small working group to work on the budgeting details.
Select Board member Ann Rein said she wants to see some indication that the schools are willing to work with the Hanson board.
“We have to keep trying,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Select Board member Joe Weeks said his conversations with other parents have revealed there is no one who does not support the schools, “but they just don’t know where their money is going.”
“They’re not seeing it,” he said.
Kain encouraged people to do research on their own.
“There’s incredible power in doing that,” he said. “The state does make it easier for people to see how [funds] are being distributed in a regional school district.”